TGS 2005: Armored Core Mobile 2 Hands-On

TOKYO--Most of the hype coming out of From Software's mobile booth was surrounding Armored Core Mobile Online, the company's complex competitive mech game. However, the company was also showing off Armored Core Mobile 2, a game very much like its online counterpart but meant instead for those looking to get their single-player mech fix. There was no shortage of Japanese mech games at the Tokyo Game Show, especially for mobile, but Armored Core Mobile 2 stood out as one of the more interesting in the genre.

This game isn't currently coming to North America, so until the NTSC folks start to show a little more enthusiasm about giant robots, we might not be able to see Armored Core Mobile 2 when it's completed. We played through a bit of the story mode, confirming that it's a pretty standard mech game: You pick your mech, you customize and upgrade it after playing through the game, and you fight other mechs. In this version, you're playing only one on one and, as in all the fights we engaged in, in a single room. Of course, there is more to the game than the few levels we saw, and we did get the opportunity to fight a few different types of competitors. The first one we fought was more animal-shaped than humanoid, but it wasn't apparent what kind of animal the robot was meant to represent. In a later level, we fought a humanoid mech whose attacks were quite similar to our own: a blaze of gunfire from far away and sword strikes when up close.

Armored Core Mobile 2 is a straightforward game, but it will probably appease devout mech game fans. Hopefully we'll hear more about this game coming to North America, particularly because it's the only Armored Core game currently in development that could work on US mobile phones in the near future; online depends too much on the higher-quality Japanese cell phones, but Armored Core Mobile 2 seems like it could be adapted without a problem. We'll bring you more on Armored Core Mobile 2 if it becomes available.